


The thirteenth Darkness

by Missa_Kylea



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Character Death, M/M, Not A Happy Ending, Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts III, Roxas got norted, fair warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 01:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20037991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missa_Kylea/pseuds/Missa_Kylea
Summary: “You got me last time, but you’re supposed to be a Guardian of Light now, aren’t you Riku? Can you do it without your little trick?” Roxas taunted, yellow eyes glinting. He crouched defensively and summoned his own keyblades.What if, Roxas' heart flew away when Ventus' woke up? What if, the Real Organisation found him? After all, they did it once before.





	The thirteenth Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> I'm an old boy of fandom even if this account isn't, so have a disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, settings, etc of Kingdom Hearts, and I am not making any money off this.
> 
> I have an obsession with commas, there isn't anything that can be done, I apologise in advance. 
> 
> I actually have three other fics in the works but this one hit me like a freight train and got started last and finished first, but its also the only sad one, so maybe that says something about me. 
> 
> *READ THE TAGS: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH* do not @ me.  
I haven't actually played KH3 yet so this is set around what I vaguely know is true, please excuse any inconsistencies.

The Thirteenth Darkness

Kairi pushed the hair out of her eyes and huffed. Riku had been visiting Radiant Garden to talk to Merlin and promised to show her a way to move faster – since her usual training partner had such long reach – but they’d been jumped by nobodies before they found a quiet spot. It was probably a bad idea to come down here. Kairi hated Dancers, and the crumbled paths near the bailey were always full of them. She turned back towards the keep, looking up at where she had been thrown over the stairs when one of them caught her. Learning aerial recovery had saved her multiple broken legs and bruises by now.

Kairi was just about to call out for Riku when his voice came from above her, “Kairi, behind you!”

She whipped around, materialising her keyblade and struggling not to yelp when she realised how close an organisation member had managed to sneak up on her. They were just _standing _there empty handed, as if waiting to see how long before she noticed. She jumped back and Riku was suddenly beside her. The figure finally moved to push off their hood, and if she didn’t know better, Kairi would think Ventus stood before her.

“Roxas,” Riku sounded more resigned than surprised. Roxas obviously thought so too.

“I didn’t think I’d see you Riku, but you seem like you might have.”

“Not exactly,” Riku said. “But when your heart disappeared after we woke Ventus, and then not even Axel could find you anywhere, I thought I should prepare for the possibility Xehanort got to you first,” Riku told him, and summoned Braveheart.

Roxas’ frown deepened, but then he shrugged. “I guess you never were the optimist, huh, that was always my _other_,” he spat the word like it was poisonous. “You got me last time, but you’re supposed to be a Guardian of Light now, aren’t you? Can you do it without your little trick?” Roxas taunted, yellow eyes glinting. He crouched defensively and summoned his own keyblades.

When Oathkeeper appeared alongside Oblivion, Kairi gasped loudly and Riku couldn’t stop himself from flinching away. The once gleaming blade was tarnished, and the points at the end had jagged edges as if smashed against a wall in a fit of rage. Roxas raised the keyblade in front of him and tilted it to and fro, inspecting it. Any curiosity he felt about its new state must have been distant, for his expression showed only mild interest and lacked the horror Riku could see on Kairi’s face. From this angle, Riku noticed that two of the points of the wayfinder token had broken off as well. He had no idea what this could mean. Surely if it was about Roxas’ descent into darkness under Xehanort’s control – wasn’t a nobody already in darkness? – then the keyblade would have transformed like how Soul Eater did as Riku found his way to the light. Not like this. This was as if Oathkeeper had been _shattered_. 

Kairi, it seemed, was way ahead of him. But then again, it was originally her wayfinder.

“What did you do to Axel?” she yelled, starting to run towards Roxas before Riku slid between them.

The smile that crossed Roxas’ face was terrifying for how bleak it was. Riku glanced up towards the postern. He hadn’t seen Axel today – the former nobody sometimes avoided him – but that’s where Roxas had just come from, and that smile gave him a bad feeling. He slowly edged sideways, closer to where Roxas was standing in front of the stairs from the postern and Roxas cautiously circled away to keep his distance. He made sure to stay close to Kairi so Roxas couldn’t jump her.

“Go find him,” Riku murmured to her, “I can handle this.”

Kairi hesitated for a moment, before a determined look entered her eyes and she nodded before running behind him and up the stairs.

“Hope you have a backup ‘light’” Roxas called mockingly but didn’t try to chase after her.

Riku frowned at those yellow eyes. The narrow path and crumbled blocks on this side of the castle walls would make it easy for someone of Roxas’ abilities to have a decent chance of getting past him if they wanted to. Either Roxas thought he could deal with Riku quickly enough to stop Kairi after, or it didn’t matter how quickly Kairi reached Axel now. Gods he hoped he was wrong.

Riku had spent a lot of time monitoring Roxas in the Organisation before he took him to DiZ, and Roxas had never been cruel like the other nobodies. Xehanort had a lot to answer for, and as much as it pained Riku, he had no choice but to take Roxas down for that to happen. If Roxas really had killed Axel, his best friend, then he was too deeply under Xehanort’s influence to be saved, and possibly wouldn’t want to be once he realised what he had done. The least Riku owed him was to free him from this corruption. 

Riku took a deep breath before sliding into his ready stance and raising Braveheart again.

Roxas tilted his head for a moment – almost resembling a Shadow with those eyes – and ran forward, his keyblades grinding along the ground behind him.

* * *

Kairi panted as she ran up and around the corner, the sounds of keyblades clashing sounding behind her. Instinct told her to go back; Roxas had only been beaten through the power of darkness before, and this time he was probably eager to exact revenge against Riku. Her heart, however, remembered the devastating mess that Oathkeeper had been reduced to and was terrified for Axel.

She knew that Roxas could originally wield it due to having Sora’s memories of her. But after hearing Axel talk about their friendship and the promise he’d made to find Roxas, she had been reminded of the promise that made her give Sora the wayfinder in the first place. If Roxas was separate from Sora now, wouldn’t he summon a Keyblade that had its own meaning to him? That Oathkeeper had stayed had to mean something. Except something had caused it to break.

So Kairi ran. Up to the place where she had seen Axel go many times: a ledge near the postern outside Ansem’s lab. It seemed that no matter what world they were on, if she ever lost Axel she just had to find a high point and there he would be. Just before she reached the final set of stairs, she saw scorch marks on the ground and skidded to a stop, catching herself on the wall.

“Axel!” she yelled, stumbling through a gap in the rubble to the space she could see beyond it. There was someone in a familiar black coat collapsed on the ground almost out of sight and a couple of curious shadows were slowly drawing nearer. “Go away,” she screamed, swinging her keyblade to get rid of them. For a moment she thought she was too late, but Axel gasped and jerked up as she thumped one hand on his chest and fell beside him.

“Gah, Kairi, what?” he turned his head frantically, “where’s Roxas? Kairi, watch out, he’s,” his face crumpled, and he sagged back to the ground.

“I know Axel. He’s fighting Riku right now.” She stopped herself from saying it was alright just in time and frantically cast cura on him.

“Uh, that stings,” Axel grunted and tried to get up but fell back down again.

“Stay there,” Kairi hissed, opening his black coat and finding her hands covered in blood coming from a gash in his side. “You keep leaving yourself open on the left, you idiot.”

Axel didn’t respond with a taunt about being used to dual wielding, which only worried Kairi more. “He was angry I chose the side of the light after it took him away.”

“I don’t think Riku was really acting in the light when he did that,” Kairi said, casting cure again. Some colour was coming back to Axel’s face and the gash had closed, but his face stayed disturbingly blank and his voice distant. She started checking for other injuries.

“He thinks I forgot about him,” Axel continued, ignoring Kairi’s words again. “No, that I chose Sora over him. I wouldn’t run away with him when he asked: I couldn’t bear to watch him give himself up. But then he saw me sacrifice myself when Sora was gonna get done in by those dusks. That I regretted letting him go and didn’t want to see what was left of him fade away just didn’t occur to him, I guess.”

“Oh Axel,” Kairi sighed. “Darkness like that twists what you see. No matter what Sora said, Riku could only see him replacing us with new friends. I’m sure Roxas is the same”

Axel stared blankly for a moment, and Kairi wasn’t sure if her words even reached him. Then he snapped his head around, startling Kairi with his intense stare. “Hey, if somebody told you that you made them feel like they had a heart, you’d know what they meant, right?” Kairi must have turned the colour of her hair, because he immediately kept going, “Yeah, don’t bother answering that, I can tell by your face.”

He managed to sit up this time. Kairi watched him watch the afternoon sky peeking between the rocks, but she thought his mind was on something even more out of reach. She wasn’t sure if they were waiting, or if Axel just couldn’t bring himself to move any further. To her, it seemed as if his flame had flickered lowly ever since she met him again, but now she worried that it would be snuffed out completely. Some part of her thought she should go check on Riku since Axel wasn’t going to bleed out, at least not physically, but neither of them moved.

Sounds of movement coming from below caught her attention. She jumped to her feet and ran to the gap, but Riku was alone. He looked tired and grimy and must have run through his supply of potions. His limp was only that bad when everything else hurt so much that he forgot about it.

Axel had turned to watch him approach but didn’t move from the ground. Riku grimaced when he caught his gaze. He looked away for a moment, bracing himself, but eventually opened his mouth to speak.

Beyond the outskirts of Radiant Garden, the sun was setting, but none of the keyblade wielders could see it.

* * *

_“Neither of us could bring ourselves to end it, not this time. I could do that much at least. I know he tried to keep his promise. Tell him I’ll see him next time. Tell him. Tell him I’ll be waiting.”_


End file.
